If you want potential customers to find your small business and select your pest control services over the competition’s, then you need a stand-out pest control marketing plan.
To help you get started, we’ve developed this pest control marketing guide packed with top pest control marketing ideas, strategies and channels. You can use these tips and tricks to create a solid first impression, enhance your online presence and acquire new customers.
Importance of creating an online presence for your pest control company
Once valued at $20.6 billion in 2019, the global pest control industry is forecasted to expand to $30 billion by 2027, a 5.02% increase between 2020 and 2027.
As temperatures warm across the world, pest infestations are expected to worsen, so the demand for pest control businesses, pest control services and exterminators will continue to rise. There’s an opportunity for your business to grow if you can attract and convert this influx of potential customers looking for help with bed bugs, termites, rodents and other nuisances.
Now, more than ever, it’s time to create an impressive online presence for your company and become the provider of choice in your local market.
Top pest control service marketing channels and tactics
Implementing the following strategies could help you generate more high-quality leads and get more pest control service bookings.
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A pest control website
Building a website that engages your target audience is fundamental to establishing your online presence. If you want to ensure a solid first impression with potential customers and convert your website visitors into new customers, make sure your website:
- Is optimized for mobile devices
- Has a contact webpage that lists your company’s phone number, email address and links to business listings on social media and online review websites
- Highlights client testimonials and positive reviews about your pest control services
- Lists your extermination and pest control services and the pricing for each
- Includes lead generation forms to collect contact information from homeowners who are interested in booking your services or joining your SMS and email marketing lists
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Blogging, content marketing and local SEO
Get your website to the top of search engine results by investing in high-quality content that includes the keywords customers are searching for to find local businesses like yours. For instance, you might create a downloadable guide about “How to get rid of bed bugs” if that’s a highly searched topic among homeowners in your service area.
Try out various content marketing options — from infographics and videos to blogs and longer guides — and see what helps improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and referrals to your website from organic search. You can measure your success by monitoring if:
- Your local SEO rankings improve
- More homeowners visit your pest control website from Google Search and other search engines
- Page views and time spent on your website go up
- Pest control services bookings increase because of web traffic to your content
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Social media marketing
Local search engines aren’t the only websites where homeowners look for home service providers. More than half of consumers (55%) say they use social media to learn about businesses and an even greater share of consumers (78%) say they would be willing to spend money with a company after having a positive interaction with the business via social media.
Even if you don’t have the time to regularly post a lot of content to your social media profiles, it’s essential to:
- Claim or set up your business listings on key social media channels
- Add your business information to your listings (contact information, hours of operation, pest control services offered, etc.)
- Respond to both positive reviews and negative reviews posted to your accounts
- Add recent photos and videos that demonstrate the high-quality services you provide
- Keep your profiles up to date to show that the business is still up and running
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Online reviews
If your pest control company only has a few online reviews, too many negative reviews or only older reviews from more than a few months ago, your online reputation could suffer.
Most customers say online reviews impact their purchasing decisions, so it’s worth asking your customers to submit reviews about your business on your Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business), Facebook and other popular channels.
To streamline the review request process, Broadly offers tools to create automated email review requests and SMS review request marketing campaigns so you can get more online reviews faster.
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SMS marketing
SMS marketing is often an overlooked — but promising — marketing channel. SMS campaigns generate an average 98% open rate, unmatched by other marketing channels. To start sending text messages to your pest control leads and customers, you’ll need to collect their contact information and consent to receive SMS marketing outreach from your company.
You can set up a lead generation form on your website to gather these SMS marketing opt-ins. Once you begin building an SMS marketing list, you can send your subscribers:
- Updates about new pest control services
- Appointment confirmations and reminders
- Mobile invoices
- Review requests
- Promotions, special offers
- Seasonal reminders about treatments homeowners need to consider
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Email marketing
Email marketing and SMS marketing are complementary marketing channels. You don’t have to pick one over the other. Some contacts may only opt into hearing from your company via one channel, and others may prefer receiving important information — such as service reminders and invoices — via both SMS and email campaigns.
There’s real value in investing in email marketing for small businesses, especially given the high potential return on investment (ROI). For each $1 a company allocates towards email marketing, the business generates an average ROI of $36.
To get the most out of your email marketing efforts, use these email marketing tips:
- Make sure your email campaigns are relevant and valuable — don’t waste your subscribers’ time on useless, self-promotional emails
- Pay attention to how your email marketing campaigns are performing: Look at key performance indicators (KPIs), such as unsubscribe and click-through rates, that measure user engagement
- Address your email subscribers by their first name in your email campaign messages
- Tailor your email campaigns by customer segment, depending on the pest control services they used in the past, demographics and homeowners vs. property managers, loyal customers vs. new customers
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Web Chat
When homeowners and property managers visit your pest control website, you want them to find all the information they need to choose your extermination services over the competition. That said, some questions may still arise, and you want them to get the answers they need immediately before they consider checking out a competitor’s website.
That’s where web chat services come in handy. Businesses and users both benefit from live chat website tools that allow customers and companies to communicate directly on the business’s website in real time.
Many consumers (42%) prefer web chat services to other customer support communications channels, and most businesses (80%) with live chat functionality on their websites say the feature helps improve customer loyalty, revenue and sales.
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Online advertising
When business is slow or you’re looking to step up your lead generation efforts, paid marketing channels are a great option if there’s room in your marketing budget. Paid advertising enables you to reach more potential customers faster than organic marketing channels.
Advertisers have several options to choose from, including:
- Pay-per-click (PPC) ads: Available on multiple platforms, including Facebook Ads or Google Ads displayed on Google Search. PPC ads enable marketers to reach a broad audience with reasonable pricing. Companies only pay when potential customers click on the ad, which makes this an excellent choice for raising awareness of your services.
- Pay-per-lead (PPL) ads: These ads are also available on Google Ads (Google Local Services Ads) and Facebook Ads. Here, the pricing is set up differently: Instead of paying every time someone clicks on an ad, you pay each time a new lead follows through on a call-to-action from an ad for your pest control services, like booking an appointment or consultation. PPL is a great pick for driving lead generation efforts.
Pest control marketing FAQ
How do I generate more pest control leads?
You can get more leads for your pest control business by using the marketing channels and strategies discussed in this guide, including:
- Building an online presence, starting with a solid website that ranks well in search engines
- Complementing your website with a strong social media presence and positive online reviews
- Using your website and social media presence to gain email and SMS subscribers
- Investing in paid marketing channels to supplement your organic growth efforts and accelerate lead generation
How do I improve my pest control business’s reputation?
If you want to improve your pest control business’s brand image, use these online reputation management strategies:
- Keep track of what customers are saying about your company on social media and review websites
- Analyze brand mentions and online reviews to determine overall customer sentiment and uncover opportunities to improve the customer experience
- Reply to all of your brand mentions and customer reviews to nurture your customer relationships and make a solid first impression on potential customers who may read these reviews and comments before deciding to do business with your company
- Track your online reputation over time and intervene as soon as negative sentiment arises
Where should pest control companies advertise online?
Allocate your budget towards channels where you know consumers are looking for pest control services. Test out a handful of small advertising campaigns on a mix of channels to see which platforms help you improve reach, lead generation or local services bookings, depending on your campaign objectives.
- Paid social media campaigns (Facebook Ads, Instagram, etc.)
- Search engines (Google Search, Bing, etc.)
- Online reviews websites and online directories, such as Yelp
- Home service websites, such as Angi
Expand your pest control business with Broadly
Whether you need to build a new pest control website, improve your local SEO, boost your reputation or all of the above, Broadly has the tools to help you improve your online presence. Use our platform to manage and optimize your reviews on Google Business Profile and other review sites or send best-in-class SMS and email marketing campaigns.
Schedule a demo today and learn how to use Broadly’s small business marketing tools.
